The Black Heart
by Mr leather
Summary: Karone thinks her past is behind her, she was wrong...
1. Chapter 1

The Black Heart

A power rangers Lost Galaxy fanfic

The colossal livethan ship known as terra venture slowly arced it's way through deep space, it's crew ever vigilant of the long search for a new world, though some had other things on their mind.

Karone was deep into her small library of books within her quarters. She had'nt considered sorting them out for days but had just began to appreciate the organisation of such things in the had been over one month since she had taken on the mantle of pink galaxy ranger, and she was now more proud than ever since was allowed to redeem herself from her tenure as astronema, princess of evil. She was now fully Karone, and she knew that.

"Karone! Quick follow me!" Leo's urgent voice raced through her ears as she drew herself away from the books and turned to follow him.

"what's happening?" Karone asked as she caught up with Leo.

"some of our technicians have been taken hostage by trakeena, we don't know how"

They arrived at the bridge, where Maya, Kai, Damon and Mike were a;ready waiting. As they recovered their breath, Mike outlined the situation in full.

"the engine technicians that have been kidnapped have been located on a small satellite moon at coordinates 54-12"Kai punched the numbers into a small keyboard followed by one of the screens flashing up a location at the plotted coordinates "we don't know how they got there, nor what the motive was behind their abduction"

"do we know who did it?" Karone asked.

"Not for definite, but there are a lot of suspicions" Mike replied, referring to trakeena.

"guessing amongst ourselves however is not going to get them back, people" Commander Stranton stepped in.

"he's right, you guys lets go!" Leo piped up. And with a battle cry of "Go Galatic!" the five rangers and Magna Defender were enroute to the area via the megaship. However from afar the Scorpion stinger had detected their departure towards the moon, and onboard trakeena had already set her sights on the rangers.

"heh..heh heh.. they won't know what hit 'em!" she mused with an evil chuckle. Villamax who was standing beside her, frowned with a low inaudible grunt. The honourable warrior suspected a rubbish plan formulating in her mind. He quietly said, "just how do you plan to destroy the rangers this time?"

Trakeena turned to face him with narrow eyes, and held up a purple crossbow shaped weapon. Villamax surveyed it's contours as trakeena spoke-

"this is a special weapon." She said. "a mind weapon". Villamax stared at her, looking intrigued. "It incapacitates the victim for a short time with painful shock, then comes the fun part" Trakeena smiled deviously "during numbing blast the weapon stimulates the mind and brain, sparking painful memories which over time deteriorate the victim" "I plan to use this weapon to drive the rangers insane!"

Villamax did not like this revelation at all. He believed in destroying the power rangers by plain and simple face to face confrontation. Turning the rangers insane! It was not honourable at all! Trakeena spoke again "anyway, I think it is in your best interests for you to deliver the blow Villamax"

Villamax's frown grew wider.

"I think not! Why can't we destroy the rangers first hand! This preposterous idea of yours is insane in itself! Where is the honour and accomplishment!" Trakenna's grin turned on it's head, and she drew out a blaster, Villamax expressing a look of horror.

She pulled the trigger and Villamax fell to the floor as the point blank shot ringed out. He looked up at trakenna confused, it was only a flesh wound. she instantly responded with indignation.

"your pointless shoot-outs have always failed! If action is to be taken it is my word against yours! Hmph, obviously you're not fit to carry this out" Villamax snarled at her "Deviot! Come here!" the smug figure of Deviot immediately entered, amused at Villamax's obvious predicament.

"what is it, my queen?"

A grin appeared on Trakeena's face.

"take this, and use it to destroy the rangers"

"as you wish" Deviot obeyed without question and took the crossbow and walked out of the scorpion stinger's bridge, ready to deal his decisive blow against the rangers..

"there! I think I've got something!" Damon exclaimed, peering at his monitor on the megaship. Leo, Kai, Maya, Karone and Mike hurried over and stared toward the screen.

Kai smiled "that's them alright" making the observation that the reading conclusively matched that of humans, the abducted technicians in point of fact.

"well then come on, we can't just sit around can we?" Maya piped up. Leo, Kai and Mike immediately set the megaship to descend and land at the precise spot. Within minutes they were down on the ground and disembarking. All six of them advanced carefully along the surface of the moon, each step more careful than the last.

"muwha haa ha ha! So rangers, you've decided to come rescue your fellow man, well the jokes on you!" the menacing voice of Deviot gave way to the appearance of a dozen sting wingers, heading straight for them.


	2. Chapter 2

"GO GALACTIC!"

"MAGNA POWER!"

The five rangers and magna defender charged at the deluge of sting wingers, the scene descending into a drawn out brawl to the sounds of blasts and the clashing of quasar sabres. While the rangers had superior power, the sting wingers had strength in numbers. Though the rangers and the Magna defender considered them as cannon fodder, the sting wingers started to become a handful.

"we're being stalled, Leo!" Maya and Karone shouted in unison, each grappling with Sting wingers. Leo and the others agreed, themselves being attacked left to right.

"LIGHTS OF ORION, ACTIVATE!" instantly the rangers were infused with upgraded powers, and all together charged the army head on, turning into a ball of energy which slashed through the column of sting wingers, reducing the numbers to just the lucky stragglers. Mike then joined in the fun, blasting the rest of the sting wingers into oblivion with his magna blaster. Their sense of triumph however quickly ceased however as Deviot himself appeared with the new crossbow weapon.

"You will NOT STOP ME RANGERS, HAA HA HA!"

"you should really consider doing a job yourself Deviot! Ready?"

"READY!"

Leo and the others ganged up on Deviot, using all of their moves and weaponry, but the lone monster kept them at bay.

Leo turned to Kai and the others "You Damon and the girls go after the technicians! Me and Mike 'll take care of this sucker!"

"you got it!" the green, yellow, blue and pink rangers dashed away toward the horizon, while Mike took his place beside Leo.

"Alright Deviot, it's just you and me!"

"And Me!"

"well, well, well a unfair fight, I like it!" The red ranger and Magna defender ignored his gleeful comments and charged him, weapons ready. Deviot suddenly unleashed a multitude of lasers out of his body, knocking Leo and Mike down. As Leo regained his footing, Deviot pinned him down with the crossbow weapon.

"prepare for a shock red ranger! This will drive you mad!" Deviot laughed with a smug look.

"NOO!"

"Karone Don't!" leo shouted as Karone suddenly rushed back to her friends pinned down by Deviot. But his cries came too late as she dived in front of him just as Deviot fired his weapon, aiming for Leo.

Karone took the full force of the blast. She screamed loudly in terrifying pain that she had never felt before, landing face-flat on the ground with her visor cracked, her body lying motionless on the rocky moon surface.

"oo! Better than I'd hoped! Goodbye rangers, HA HAA!" Deviot exclaimed in triumph before fading away from view having teleported back to the scorpion stinger. Leo and Mike quickly got on their feet, and rushed over to Karone.

"karone, Karone! Can you hear me? Wake up!"

Mike carefully removed her helmet as Leo pulled her body upward in his arms. Karone's face was covered in sweat and she was unconscious, but otherwise looked fine.

"Karone! Wake up!" Leo kept calling for her to wake up but his words fell on deaf ears. He suddenly jumped and released Karone from his grip as Maya, Kai and Damon came sprinting back toward them.

"Leo! We've been duped!"

"What happened!"

Karone suddenly demorphed as Mike and Leo looked up at the others,

Their faces turned as white as a sheep. Mike looked over to them in shock.

"what? You mean there was nobody kidnapped from Terra Venture?"

Damon and Kai nodded. Maya knelt down beside Karone's lifeless body.

"Leo! What happened?" Maya's response was almost demanding.

"Deviot tried to scrape me and Mike with some type of crossbow weapon, but Karone took the shot…"

Maya expressed a look of pure horror "No! Karone! Karone! Wake Up!"

Karone's body suddenly started to twitch and sway lightly. Leo then started to see what he made out as something sparkling on her face. A single tear coming down from her right eye. She WAS alive.

"she's alive! Yes. She is alive!" Maya gasped with relief.

"well come on! Let's get her back to the megaship!" and with that all five of them dashed to the megaship with Leo carrying Karone on his back, with Mike running behind to provide support.


	3. Chapter 3

Maya may have cutting herself up from Karone being injured, but alpha 6 was in total hysterics when the rangers returned.

"oh no no no no no! is Karone alright?" Alpha asked in a very worried manner

"we don't know alpha.. get her into the sickbay!" Leo shouted, and handed Karone's still lifeless but living body over to the helm of Alpha.

An hour later, Karone was in sickbay and still not awake. She was strapped up to many monitors and electronic systems which were surveying every process of her body, even down to a neural scale. The bed on which she was laid on was being watched by Leo and Alpha 6. Maya had occasionally dropped in, but the others had recommended that she not get too grieved over the situation, after all, the many medical units confirmed that Karone was on the mend. Alpha 6's diagnostic had revealed that there was no long term physical damage, and that she was breathing with a constant heartbeat. However Leo had insisted to helping Alpha. He let out a heavy sigh "I just wish she would wake up, I don't like being held in suspense"

"well, whatever it is that's keeping her in that state, I cannot find it" Alpha replied.

"your doing the best you can, Alpha" Leo said complimenting his robotic friend. "I should have faced the music, get her out of harm's way, at least take some of it myself" he continued.

"don't beat yourself up Leo, everything has gone too fast today" Alpha reassuringly said, attempting to console Leo, who nodded in response. A silent moan then drove his attention to Karone again. Her body had started to move, although this time it was her left hand, which began a rhythmic clutching.

Karone's mind was racing. She could only remember a blinding flash of bright purple light, and then darkness- Nothing but a black void where the features of the moon surface and the figure of Deviot used to be. She could see and hear nothing. Then came the sound of manical laughter. Laughter that she recognized-it was her laughter-or rather it was astronema, not her, she wasn't astronema. Anymore. But then the voice changed to a young girl, screaming. The screaming pierced her mind and made her blood run cold. It was her this time, when she was kidnapped by Ecliptor._ The screams.. the crying.. NO! stop it! Please! Stop this! _The voices of astronema and the young girl then intertwined, probing deeper into Karone's mind like daggers tipped with lethal poison, each more deadlier than the last. _Please! Stop this now!..._the voices were then replaced by faint cries of "wake up" which gradually got louder. Her sight began to return, and the figure of Leo telling her to wake up materialized clean in her face. His expression turned to one of relief. Karone, her eyes filled with water, let in a huge breath and let herself be gathered up and hugged by Leo "Leo, Leo… I was horrible, I was nearly killed… I.. i.." Leo let her head rest on his shoulder, tears streaming down her face.

"it's alright Karone, It's alright… I'm here, we all are"

After Karone wiped away the tears, Leo lead her to her quarters, where Maya was waiting. She immediately jumped up from her bed and embraced Karone tightly.

"oh Karone, you're alright, I was so worried" Karone need not say anything. She just returned the hug, and closed her eyes briefly. _Back to the land of the living.. _she thought.

That night (or so it would seem) Karone lay softly on her bed, trying to sleep, to forget the events of the day she just had. But as she closed her eyes, light filled her vision. She perceived it to be similar to fire, but it grew purple In colour, like that flash… then voices flooded her ears. Astronema spoke up in her mind.

"you thought you could get away…" the voice grew louder "FROM YOUR PAST!"Karone's blood ran cold again, she could feel her heart beating harder."it is time for you to go back!" Karone's subconscious defended her.

"_No! I never want to go back!"_

"Do it! Or you will die!"

"_I told you I won't-"_

"YES, YOU MUST COME BACK, ASTRONEMA! FOR THE GOOD OF EVIL!" the booming deep voice of dark spectre invaded her mind.

"_I am Karone! I am not evil!"_

"YOU WILL BE!"Karone strained against his voice. She tried to open her eyes, but they seemed latched shut.

"YES,YOU WILL BECOME PRINCESS OF EVIL AGAIN!"

"succumb to the evil!" the voices of astronema and dark spectre spoke louder and louder and were now in unison, still Karone's subconscious battled against the invading forces.

"_I will not go back! I have changed!"_

The voices continue to attack her mind, just as Karone started to push her eyes open. Then the voice of her young life piped up, screaming and loudly crying. "_stop! I am Karone!" _her eyes finally fluttered open. And she screamed in shock. The lights of the room suddenly came to life. Maya rushed over to Karone.

"Karone! What's wrong?"

Karone stood up and was about to tell Maya everything… but then blackness flooded her eyes for a third time and she fainted.


End file.
